Pine Almost Declined Kirk Role

It took a comment by Chris Pine‘s sister to get him to see that playing James T. Kirk would be better than accepting a role in White Jazz.

As reported by Variety, Pine was offered the roles for White Jazz and Star Trek XI at the same time, but he was leaning towards the former. “It was not a no-brainer,” said Pine. “This wild, sociopathic, obsessive-compulsive, latently homosexual, angry young man sounded like a blast. It was just a fun-fun-fun character role. Then I had Jim Kirk, more of the Harrison Ford versus the Gary Oldman role. My natural inclination is to do the character piece.”His sister made him rethink that original inclination by asking Pine a question. “Is there a way to look at it that Kirk is the more challenging role?,” she asked.

After a bit of thought, Pine came to the conclusion that the Kirk role was the more challenging one. “Whatever scares you more is the right choice,” he said. “It’s easier to put on a ton of makeup and strange clothes; you’re hiding yourself. (Instead) it’s me as James Kirk. In order for James Kirk to sell, I have to sell me.”

Pine has done such a good job of selling himself that he was named the “ShoWest Male Star of Tomorrow,” as first mentioned in an article located at TrekToday. Pine will receive the award on April 2nd at ShoWest. “”It’s flattering,” said Pine of the honor, “but incredibly daunting and a little bit perplexing when you’ve heard people say what a great job you’ve apparently done. It remains to be seen,” he said, noting that Star Trek XI won’t be out until next month.